My personal background is actually very unusual for the kind of career I chose. I didnยt meet anyone who had ever done physics in my life. I grew up in the Himalayan forests. My father was a forest conservator, which meant that if I wasnยt in school I was in the forests with him. That has been very largely responsible for my ecological inclinations.
Vandana ShivaItยs not that Monsanto is making money out of the blue. Itยs making money by coercing and literally forcing people to pay for what was free. Take water, for instance. Water has always been free. Weยve never paid for drinking water. The World Bank says the reason water has been misused is because it was never commercially priced. But the reason itยs been misused is because it was wasted by the big usersยindustry, which polluted it.
Vandana ShivaThe occupation of America (and Columbus's arrival quite clearly was an occupation, no one can deny that) meant that the entire history of the Native Americans was rendered invisible. The land could only be occupied if it was first defined as empty. So it was defined as a wilderness, even though it had been used by native people for millennia.
Vandana ShivaFor us, not cooperating in the monopoly regimes of intellectual property rights and patents and biodiversity - saying "no" to patents on life, and developing intellectual ideas of resistance - is very much a continuation of Gandhian satyagraha. It is, for me, keeping life free in its diversity.
Vandana ShivaBecause of these new car models there is suddenly on the streets of Delhi a new intolerance by the motorists for both the cows and the cyclists. So for the first time the sacred cow in India, which used to be such a wonderful speed-breaker, is now seen as a nuisance. For the first time, Iยve seen cows being hit and hurt. These guys just go right past, and if the cow is sitting on the road, they donยt care. We canยt afford to have a sacred car rather than a sacred cow.
Vandana Shiva